The Development of the Çomyopregi Language

The purpose of this page is to explain the development (phonologically, at least) of Çomyopregi through the ages. The sound changes described below are presented in chronological order, and are treated in three stages. The first stage deals with preliterate sound changes, from Proto-Indo-European (PIE) to the Proto-Quepaquic (PQ) language, ancestor of Çomyopregi and its relatives; the second stage deals with the alterations that resulted in Old Çomyopregi (OCmp) as it appeared in its early texts; the final stage deals with changes from Old Çomyopregi to the modern language (MCmp). Keep in mind that both PIE and PQ are unattested. Also keep in mind that because the rules below are arranged chronologically, each successive rule also affects anything resulting from a previously listed rule. Finally, in linguistic usage, > means "evolves into" and < means "derives from".

But first, you should be aware of the sounds we're starting out with. If we analyze and classify the assumed sound-system of Proto-Indo-European, it would be like so:

Syllabic Elements

short vowels: i, e, a, o, u

long vowels: ī, ē, ā, ō, ū

short diphthongs: ei, ai, oi, eu, au, ou

long diphthongs: ēi, āi, ōi, ēu, āu, ōu

laryngeals: h1, h2, h3

syllabic sonorants: @r, @l, @m, @n

Non-syllabic Elements (Consonants)

labial

dental

palatovelar

velar

labiovelar

voiceless stops

p

t

ky

k

kw

plain voiced stops

b

d

gy

g

gw

voiced aspirated stops

bh

dh

gyh

gh

gwh

spirants (fricatives)

s (z)

sonorants

nasals

m

n

taps

r

laterals

l

glides / semivowels

y

w

There is an alternative conception of Indo-European consonants if you adhere to the "Glottalic Theory" instead of the traditional reconstruction. However, whatever its merits, discussing competing views of PIE phonology would be confusing and outside the purpose of this description. Also, the
syllabic sonorants are traditionally represented with a hollow subscript dot, but I have no idea how to do that in HTML, so I've substituted a "@" in front of the sonorant. So whenever you see @ in front of something, imagine it's a hollow dot under something. One more thing: z is merely a variant (allophone) of s in front of certain other sounds, like d.

From Proto-Indo-European to Proto-Quepaquic

First, the palatovelars were absorbed into the plain velars.

Geminate (doubled) stops and voiceless stops followed by a laryngeal become voiceless aspirated stops.

Unstressed, non-initial ye and wo not preceded by another vowel, become i and u respectively.*ekwos > ecu; *mor-ye- > morimor

From Old Çmyopregi to Modern Çomyopregi

ghy > y*wrughyos > vruyo

tl, dl, hl > ll*tlokw- > lloquem, ahlom > allo

ls > ssquolsom > quosso

uä, yä become u, i

är, äl, äm, än > ir, il, im, in, rarely or, ol, om, on

Any remaining ä's > a

e > i after u, but usually not after qu, gu, ghu.uelem > uilem, but querem stays querem

Sometimes, an unstressed e > i under the influence of a nearby e/é, or unstressed o > u near an o/ó

Final s is often dropped.

Table of Indo-European Sound Correspondences

To get an idea of how Çomyopregi is related to its cousins, the table below summarizes the basic sound correspondences in PIE languages. This is not supposed to be technical, just to present a "big picture". If any professional historical linguists out there happen to notice something wrong
with my table, feel free to email a correction.

Proto-Indo-European

Vedic Sanskrit

Ionic Greek

Classical Latin

Proto-Germanic

Old Church Slavonic

Old Armenian

Old Irish

Çomyopregi

i/īe/ēa/āo/ōu/ū

i/īa/āa/āa/āu/ū

i/īe/ēa/ē, āo/ōu/ū

i/īe/ēa/āo/ōu/ū

i/īe/ēa/ōa/ōu/ū

ĭ/ie/ěo/ao, ŭ/aŭ/y

ie/iao/owow

i/íe/ía/áo/áu/ú

i/íe/éa/áo/óu/ú

ei/ēiai/āioi/ōieu/ēuau/āuou/ōu

e/aie/aie/aio/auo/auo/au

ei/ēai/āoi/ōeu/ēuau/ēu, āuou/ō

īaeū, oeūauū

ī/ēaiaieuauau

iěějuuu

êayêoy/iwawoy

ééai,ae,oi,oeúa&oacuteúa

í/éay/áyoy/óyio, eu/ío, éuau/áuó, ú

ptkykkw

pt&ccedilk, ck, c

ptkkp, t, k

ptccqu

f, -b-þ, -d-h, -g-h, -g-hw, -gw-

ptsk, c, čk, c, č

h, -wt', -ysk', č'k', č'

-t, thc, chc, chc, ch

ptccqu

bdgyggw

bdjg, jg, j

bdggb, d,
g

bdggv

ptkkkw

bdzg, dz, ?g, dz, ?

ptck, čk, č

bdggb

bdgggu

bhdhgyhghgwh

bhdhhgh, hgh, h

phthkhkhph, th, kh

f-, -b-f-, -d-, -b-hhf, -b-

bdgggw

bdzg, dz, džg, dz, dž

b, -w, -vdjg, ༐g,
༐

bdggg

vdhghghghu

s

s

s, h-, -

s, -r-

s, -z

s, x

s, h-, -

s-, -

s, ch

h1h2h3

i, -i, -i, -

eao

a, -a, -a, -

a, -a, -a, -

ŭ, -ŭ, -ŭ, -

iaa

a, -a, -a, -

a, -a, -a, -

r/@rl/@lm/@mn/@n

r/@rl,
r/@rm/an/a

r/arl/alm/an/a

r/orl/ulm/emn/en

r/url/ulm/umn/un

r/rŭl/lŭm/ęn/ę

r, ł/arl, ł/ałm/amn/an

r/ril/lim/imn/in

r/irl/ilm/im, an/in, a

wy

vy

-h-, z-, -

vi

wj

vj

g, -wy

f-

u, -v-y

NOTES:

Proto-Indo-European, mother of all Indo-European languages, is unattested, reconstructed, hytpothetical. No one can be absolutely sure what the sounds of the language were, or what its vocabulary was. Unattested forms are marked with an asterisk (*).

- indicates that a sound was simply lost.

In the daughter languages, the laryngeals were usually lost.

The position of a sound in a word also affects sound change. In Germanic, p would become f when initial or immediately preceded by the accent, and b when in other positions, etc.